STATE
Title: California Agencies Open the Door to Cannabis Cultivation Conglomerates
Author: Wendel Rosen Law Firm
Date: 22 November 2017
Extract: Last week three California Agencies issued a series of regulations governing recreational canna-business which is scheduled to launch January 1, 2018. The most controversial aspect of the regulations is what they don’t include. They don’t include limits on the number of cultivation licenses one person or entity can own or control.
For years, many in the cannabis industry have feared that big tobacco (R.J. Reynolds), big pharma (G.W. Pharmaceuticals) or big agriculture (Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland) would swoop in and take over the cannabis industry once it was legalized and reached sufficient scale to make it profitable. Last November, California voters approved Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act., which required the California Department of Food and Agriculture to issue cultivation licenses for various size grows: Small (Type 2 up to 10,000 square feet), Medium (Type 3 up to one acre) and Large (Type 5 more than an acre). But Proposition 64 explicitly stated that “No Type 5 … cultivation licenses may be issued before January 1, 2023.” Senate Bill 94, includes the same size descriptions and limitations, precluding large grows of more than an acre per premises until January 2023.
Many saw the five year waiting period for large grows as a barrier to entry that would allow the smaller local farmers to get a foothold in the legal recreational market, while discouraging and/or delaying big tobacco/pharma/agriculture since they wouldn’t be able to buy up, or convert their existing hundred-acre farms into pot plantations.
But the local cannabis industry was also hoping the recently proposed regulations would include a second barrier to entry; limits on the number of cultivation licenses any one person or entity could hold. The regulations issued last week don’t include such limitations.
Absent such limitations, local canna-businesses are concerned that big tobacco/pharma/agriculture will apply for unlimited cultivation licenses, effectively preempting the local cannabis industry just as it gets started.
SAN FRANCISCO
Title: San Francisco Announces Nov. 30 Deadline for License Registration of Non-Medical Cannabis Dispensary BusinessesSAN FRANCISCO
Author: Wendel Rosen Law Firm
Date: 22 November 2017
Extract: Beginning on January 1, 2018, numerous California cities will begin issuing licenses for recreational marijuana businesses. To help you better understand the application process for the City of San Francisco, we set forth the following update from San Francisco’s Office of Cannabis. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the experienced attorneys at Wendel Rosen who can help you navigate the application process.
Non-MCD cannabis businesses operating in San Francisco must register by November 30, 2017, to be able to apply for 2018 permits.
Medical cannabis dispensaries (MCDs) with an Article 33 permit do not need to register now. But any cultivators, distributors and manufacturers who work with permitted MCDs must register.
Most cannabis businesses who miss the November 30 deadline will have to stop operating and wait until 2019 to apply again.
We know many cannabis businesses are changing right now. In most cases, business registering with the Office of Cannabis will have a chance to update business name, management structure and address after this initial registration period.
If you have already registered, pass this email on to other cannabis businesses.
